Deepika Kumari crashes out to end Indian challenge in archery

LONDON: Indian archers’ dismal show came to an end at the London Olympics today as world no. 1 and medal hope Deepika Kumari bowed out of women’s individual event after suffering an upset defeat against Amy Oliver of Great Britain in the opening round.

Deepika was completely off color today and was no match for her British rival, who easily pocketed the encounter 6-2.

In individual events, which is decided on best of five sets (three arrows each), one who wins a set irrespective of the margin gets two points.

Even as both the archers ended up scoring a total of 104 each at the end, Oliver managed to win three sets.

The 18-year-old Ranchi girl could bag just one set, and that too mainly because of the rare error made by her opponent, who ended up shooting a four in one of her three chances in the second set.

Deepika, a double gold medal winner at the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi two years ago, failed to hit even a single perfect 10 in four sets.

On the other hand, Oliver scored two perfect 10s, besides hitting the bull’s eye once.

The Indians failed miserably in the men’s and women’s team events in the early of their lukewarm campaign and the trend continued in the individual events too with Deepika remaining the lone hope going into today’s competition.

Three men – Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar – formed the men’s team while Deepika, L Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro comprised the women’s outfit. -PTI